It is well known in the turf care industry that the health of the turf can be enhanced by periodically aerating the turf. Aerating the turf involves punching an array of spaced holes into the ground over the area of the turf that is to be aerated. Such aeration holes relieve soil compaction and facilitate the entry of air and water into the turf. This has a beneficial effect on the turf and leads to healthier, more vigorous turf.
Various aerators have been developed for aerating turf areas. One aerator uses a vertically reciprocal array of tines that first punch down into the ground and then are lifted up out of the ground to form the aeration holes as the aerator moves over the turf area. The tines are arranged in groups on different tine holders that are reciprocated up and down out of phase with one another. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,561,282 and 7,096,969, both owned by The Toro Company, the assignee of this application, disclose aerators with vertically reciprocal tine arrays. Toro also makes and sells aerators of this type as in its ProCore 648 aerator among others.
Another type of aerator involves rotary discs that carry tines around the periphery thereof. Each disc carries a plurality of tines that radially extend outwardly along different radii of each disc. As the discs roll over the ground, the tines carried on the discs sequentially punch down into the ground and then lift out of the ground by virtue of the rotation of the discs. Such rotary aerators are also made and sold by The Toro Company, namely Toro's Model 686 and 687 aerators.
One type of tine used in conjunction with such aerators is a hollow tine designed to pull up a generally cylindrical aeration core from the turf. Each aeration core typically includes an upper grassy or plant containing layer and a lower soil layer that underlies and comes up with the upper layer. Such hollow tines deposit the aeration cores which they pull out of the turf back down onto the surface of the turf. Thus, following the completion of an aeration operation, the surface of the turf will be covered or littered with a large number of aeration cores. The aeration cores will cover the turf surface wherever they fell and are spaced from one another atop the turf surface in various rows and columns of cores.
The aeration cores left by an aerator can be left on top of the turf surface where they will gradually decompose and erode back into the turf surface. Simply leaving the cores in place is often done in a homeowner's yard after the yard has been aerated. The aeration cores will gradually erode or disintegrate over time and fall back down into the canopy of the turf surface. Unfortunately, this can take some time to do since known aeration cores are relatively thick having a diameter of an inch or so.
In other areas where the grass is cut quite short and the turf surface sees relatively heavy and constant use, such as the greens and fairways of golf courses or the surfaces of sports fields such as soccer fields, it is not desirable to simply leave the cores in place to erode over time. Instead, the cores are usually positively broken up and dispersed down into the turf surface. This permits the turf surface to quickly return to its normal state to allow continued use thereof, namely to allow play to resume on the greens or fairways of the golf course or on the surfaces of the sports fields.
Various methods of treating the aeration cores left on the ground have been adopted and used in the past. In one case, a drag mat or the like is dragged over the turf surface, and thus over the cores lying on the turf surface, to break up the cores into pieces and to force these smaller pieces back down into the turf surface. Alternatively, various powered machines have been developed that will mechanically disintegrate the cores by the operation of rotary flails or choppers, such as the machine shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,460. In some of these machines, the cores are picked up off the ground, the upper grassy layer of the core is separated from the soil portion of the core, the soil portion of the core is disintegrated and deposited back down into the turf, and the grassy portions of the core are collected in a hopper. U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,240 to Underhill shows a core processor of this latter type.
It is more difficult to handle relatively wet and thick aeration cores in such core disintegrating machines. Wet aeration cores are more likely to plug or foul the operating parts of the machines requiring that the machines be stopped and cleaned. To avoid this from happening, the cores are usually left in place on the turf for a period of time needed for them to dry out. Dry cores can be processed and/or broken up much more easily. But, since each aeration core comprises a relatively thick, cylindrical core, it can take some time for the core to dry out as mentioned earlier. During this time, the turf surface may not be usable, particularly in the case of a fairway or green on a golf course. This is a disadvantage and a problem in the art of turf aeration.